The Raven and the First Men (Detail)

For more black and white images check out Dragonstar’s Weekend in Black and White.

You cannot visit Vancouver without a stop at the Museum of Anthropology of the University of British Columbia. Pride of place is given to a monumental wooden sculpture by Bill Reid in its own Bill Reid Rotunda. I had just framed my detail shot, when a person moved into the picture, and luckily, I pressed the button anyway. A fuller picture is below. Here is Bill Reid’s explanatory text:

“The great flood, which had covered the earth for so long, had at last receded and the sand of Rose Spit, Haida Gwaii, lay dry. Raven walked along the sand, eyes and ears alert for any unusual sight or sound to break the monotony. A flash of white caught his eye and there, right at his feet, half buried in the sand, was a gigantic clamshell. He looked more closely and saw that the shell was full of little creatures cowering in terror in his enormous shadow. He leaned his great head close and, with his smooth trickster’s tongue, coaxed and cajoled and coerced them to come out and play in his wonderful new shiny world. These little dwellers were the original Haidas, the first humans.”

The Raven and the First Men (Bill Reid, 1980)